Racing with the Stars
by InTheShadowsxX
Summary: Fifteen year old Shannon Harper dreams of becoming a famous race car, like her inspiration, Lightning McQueen. She works hard to achieve this dream, but she is just like every other teenager, seeking fun and adventure. {Rated K-plus just to be safe}
1. Chapter 1

I raced after Lightning McQueen one Saturday morning as we raced at his stadium. We were doing a 20 lap race to warm up, then we'd do another 30 laps.

I'm Shannon Harper, and I'm a 15 year old black Ascari KZ1 - R, and I have brown eyes. I live in the small town of Radiator Springs, Arizona, with my parents.

I really want to be a racer when I get older, and a few weeks ago I talked Lightning into helping me train. I know I won't be able to actually race for a few years, but there's no harm in training for it! After all, they do say "practice makes perfect." If I train for a few years before I actually start racing, then hopefully I'll be really fast and skilled by the time I'm old enough.

I know, I know, that makes me sound like I'm the kind of car that doesn't have any fun when I'm younger and just immediately start getting ready for my career, but I do have as much fun as possible. I just want to get a head start. I practice every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday morning with Lightning, but the rest of the time I do regular teenage stuff, like hang out with my best friend, Drew Vantage (he's a navy blue Aston Martin Vantage GT3). Drew's about 3 months older than me (his birthday is on April 17th, mines on July 20), and he already had his 16th birthday (my 16th birthday is in 18 daaaays! Whoo!).

But anyways, back to my training. I was about a quarter of a lap behind Lightning, so I put on a burst of speed to try to catch up. It partially worked, because now I've decreased the distance between us by about half the distance it was. We were on lap 16, so I had 4 laps to try to catch up fully.

I saw a blur of green, red, yellow, and black and white checkered as Lightning and I rushed over the finish line for the 20th time, and I slowed down, then did another lap to cool down. When I stopped at the finish line, Lightning was sitting there, waiting to critic me.

"That was great, Shannon!" He exclaimed, grinning. When I asked him to help me train, he got this excited and gleeful look in his eyes. I think he has a lot of fun training me.

"Yeah!" I cheered, proud of myself.

"You did great on the turns, and you did a good job of staying at a good pace, making sure not to over exert yourself." He said. still grinning.

"Thanks, Lightning." I said, grinning with him.

"Let's grab something to drink, then come back and do another 30 laps. Sound good?" He said.

"Sure." I said, trailing behind Lightning as we went to his office.

* * *

"See you later, Lightning! Thanks!" I called as I left the stadium.

"See ya!" He called back, then turned and went up to his office.

When I got back to town, I went to Flo's to get a drink and something to eat. When I got in, I saw Drew sitting at a table, having a milkshake, and I rolled over to him.

"Hey Drew!" I said, grinning.

"Hey Shannon!" He said, grinning back. "How was your practice?"

"It was great, thanks!" I replied.

"Great!" He said.

"I'll be right back, I'm just gonna grab something to drink and eat." I said before rolling up to the counter.

"Hiya hon, what can I get ya?" Flo asked me in her sweet southern accent.

"Hey Flo! I'll just have a medium oil, and a half stack of pancakes, please." I replied.

"Sure thing, hon." She said before heading into the kitchen to make my food real quick. About 7 minutes later, she came out with my food and drink.

"Here ya go, hon." She said, handing me a glass and plate.

"Thanks, Flo." I said smiling at her and handing her some money for the meal, then I went back over to the table Drew was at.

"Ooh, pancakes. Can I have one?" He asked me, in a teasing tone, but I knew he was serious. We've been friends since we were 4, and by now we've exchanged sips and bites of multiple drinks and snacks.

"Sure, here ya go." I said, putting a pancake on his empty plate.

"Yum. Thanks." He said, smiling at me then wolfing down his pancake like he's never eaten before. There's Drew and his appetite for you. I ate my pancakes at a car like rate, not like a rabid animal, and took sips of my oil. Drew finished up his milkshake, then watched me while I finished my stuff.

"Why do you eat so slow?" He asked me, jokingly.

"Why do you eat so fast?" I asked, also jokingly.

"Touche." He said, and we both laughed.

* * *

**Hey guys!**

**I hope you all liked this first chapter! :) I will try to update as soon as I can, which should be fairly soon since I am now on winter break (HALLELUJAH!).**

**I obviously own none of the Cars characters, they belong to Disney Pixar. So far, I only own Shannon and Drew.**


	2. Chapter 2

"C'mon, Shan!" Drew shouted from about one block ahead of me. We were heading to the Butte (or butt, as I like to call it) to simply just race around it for pleasure.

"Oh, I'm comin'!" I said, and I revved my engine, then shot off towards Drew. Within about 10 seconds, I had passed him up.

"Woah!" I heard him shout from behind me, then he raced after me. Before I knew it, I was flying over little mounds of dusty dirt, about two minutes away from the Butte. I heard Drew yelp from behind me, and I thought about what he could have possibly done. When I got to the track, I stopped, barely even winded.

"Whew! That was AWESOME!" I said to Drew, turning around, expecting him to be right behind me. When I finished turning, he wasn't there. "Huh? Drew! Where'd ya go?" I shouted, confused, then I saw him coming towards me slowly. I took a closer look and saw... Cactus needles? Ohhh... He must have ran into a cactus... Ha. Smooth Drew, very smooth. "Ooh, did somebody get a booboo?" I said teasingly, and Drew scowled at me.

"I just swerved a little and ran into a cactus, that's all." He said defensively, and I laughed. He scowled at me more and shouted "It's not funny, Shannon! It hurt!" angrily, and I shrunk back, not used to him reacting like this to my little jokes. I looked down and I rolled back slowly, hurt by his behavior. He noticed, and he suddenly looked shocked at his reactions, too. He rolled towards me, with an apologetic look on his face.

"I'm sorry, Shan. I dunno what got into me, guess just ticked off because I got a needle in my- uh, you know, you don't need to know where I got a needle in... Heh..." He said, giving me a half smile, then rolled over and nudged with my tire. "We cool, bro?" He asked me, nudging me some more. I laughed.

"Yeah, we're cool bro." I said, smiling at him. "Need any help with those needles?"

"Thank goodness. And YES! HELP! HELP HELP HELP HELP!" He exclaimed loudly, and I laughed and started pulling some of the needles out. "OOOOOW!" Drew screamed, jumping up.

"Oopsies... Sorry!" I said as I plucked some more out, resulting in more yelps. After about five minutes, I had successfully pulled all of the needles out of Drew.

"Ohhh... That's better..." He sighed, a relieved look in his eyes.

"My gosh Drew..."

"What?"

"You're probably the strangest, clutsiest cars I know. Besides Lightning, of course. Even you can't beat him." I said, and Drew and I burst out laughing, hitting our tires on the ground from laughing so hard.

After about five minutes of our hysterics, we calmed down.

"Whew... So, wanna do some racing now?" I asked Drew, blinking back some tears from all the laughing.

"Sure. But we all know who's gonna win." Drew said, smirking.

"Oh? And who's that?"

"Me, of course!" He said, laughing as he said it.

"Is that a _challenge?_" I asked, mock shock in my voice.

"Hmm, lemme get back to you on that... YEAH! YOU'RE ON, BABY!" Drew shouted, jumping in a little circle, laughing hysterically.

"Did you really just say 'baby'?" I asked.

"Er... Yeah... But I didn't mean you! I was just shouting what everyone says! You know, like- argh, you know what I mean!" He stammered, and I laughed at him. "Fine, fine, laugh all you want..." He sighed, but soon he joined me.

I calmed down, then said "Alright, lets just get to the racing, shall we?"

"Yes, yes we shall!" Drew said, and he rolled over to the rope on the ground that Lightning had had there ever since he first got here and had challenged Doc to a race, before we all knew that he was the Fabulous Hudson Hornet (I was overjoyed when I found out, and I started squealing and dancing around, getting a strange look from Drew. It was awesome).

"Alright, you're on, Vantage!" I declared, and I revved my engine again. "On your marks... Get set... GO!" I shouted, and Drew and I sped off. I took the lead early and easily, leaving Drew in the dust (literally- there was a cloud of dust behind me, and I had heard Drew coughing).

We raced around the Butt about 10 times (I had insisted on it), and I finished a lap before Drew. He got there, huffing, and pulled to a stop.

"Dude, since when were you so fast?!" He exclaimed, and I laughed.

"Since I trained with a famous race car. Race you to Flo's!" I shouted, zipping off.

"Oh, COME ON!" I heard Drew complain from behind me, and I giggled. Oh Drew... You're so weird... And that's why you're my best friend.

I got to Flo's in about 7 minutes and pulled to a stop, huffing slightly, and I parked, waiting for Drew. About 40 seconds later, he showed up, huffing.

"Dang girl, *huff*, you're *huff* _fast!_" Drew exclaimed.

"She learned from the best!" Lightning boasted, rolling over, and I laughed.

"Hey, Lightning." I said, smiling at him.

"Hey Shannon, Drew." Lightning replied.

""Sup?" Drew asked, bobbing his hood that weird way boys do whenever they say "sup."

"Not too much, just got back from a d- er, just got back from eating lunch." He said, changing his mind about what he was going to say mid-sentence. I think I know what he was going to say though, hehehe.

"Suuuure, just lunch." I taunted, smirking at Lightning, who glared at me, which caused _more _hysterics from me and Drew. After bout three minutes of me and Drew laughing uncontrollably, Lightning exclaimed "That's enough, guys, really. Stop it." Drew and I kept laughing hysterically. "Really, you guys, quit it." Still laughing. "Guys, _stop it!_" Lightning said, agitated. Drew and I shut up, and Lightning sighed with relief. "_Thank you._"

"C'mon, Drew..." I grumbled, rolling away, grumbling some things that made some of the adults gasp and scold me. "Sorry, sorry..."

When Drew and I were around the corner and out of sight, we broke down into hysterics again.

"Did you see his _face?!_" I spit out between laughs.

"Yeah! He was sooo embarrassed!" Drew exclaimed, and we broke into even more laughter.

"Oh gosh... Whew..." I said after seven more minutes of uncontrollable laughter. "I gotta go back to Flo's and get something to drink..." I said, and Drew agreed, and together, we rolled back to Flo's.

* * *

Later that night, around 7:30, I went down to the Butt to practice. When I got there, it was deserted, just like I was hoping. Strange little fact about me - I don't mind people watching me actually race, but I hate people watching me practice. I don't know why, but that's just weird me. I like being weird though. Don't see how I'd live otherwise!

Anyway, I stopped at the rope for a minute, then revved my engine. My eyes narrowed, and I stared at the track ahead of me. In my head, I pretended that someone was shouting to go, and I took off. I flew over little mounds of the dusty dirty, and I zipped around the turns. I did this for about 20 laps, then I pulled up. That was just my warm up, the same amount I always do with Lightning. But now I'm going to change up my usual routine. Instead of just 30 more laps, I'm going to do _50 _more. Let's see what you've got, Shannon...

I took off again, my tires gripping at the dirt the best they could with the speed I was going at. I pushed myself to do my best, to go as fast as I could, and to not give up. About 40 minutes later, I was on my 40th lap, and I was getting pretty tired from going top speed for so long. _C'mon Shannon, you gotta keep going... Almost done... C'mon... Tomorrow's you're birthday... You gotta prove to yourself that you can do this... I mean, tomorrow you're gonna be 16! Maybe in about 4 or 5 years, if you're lucky, you can start racing, and if you're gonna do that, you have to be able to do this now. Just a little more... _I repeated in my head, and this gave me more energy. I put on a burst of speed I found I don't know where, and I shot around the Butt the last 10 times. When I finally pulled to a stop, I was breathing heavily, and I was exhausted. But I was pleased with myself for being able to do that.

I grinned to myself cockily and headed back home, practically glowing with pride for myself.

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